P. H. Miller, Justice of the Peace for Warrick County, Indiana, maintained this docket book from 1869 to 1871 to record legal cases that came before him relating to debt, assault and battery, property disputes, and one case relating to mental illness. Additional financial documentation relating to the cases dates to 1887.
The bulk of the volume relates to debt, and most of the entries do not reveal the nature of the transactions between the parties. Those that do, however, reveal how local dry goods merchants, doctors, and laborers used the court system to recoup unpaid bills. Several include copies of bills, providing insight into services and goods being exchanged in the community. In one instance where the defendant fled the state to defraud his creditors, the court included an inventory of his holdings assessed to cover his debts (p.119). They also reveal the kinds of work happening in the community, from blacksmithing, making molasses, farming, brickmaking, and more.
A number of assault and battery cases are also documented, including several that involve plaintiffs and defendants from earlier legal disputes indicating escalating emotion and violence. At least one involved domestic violence, where Josephine Mischke accused August Mischke of hitting her with a horsewhip (pp. 137-139). August Mischke was later taken to court for abusing a horse, and appears periodically throughout the volume as a plaintiff bringing debt cases against patrons of his dry goods store for unpaid bills.
Several disputes over land and household goods like quilts, beds, and clocks are also recorded. The entry for State of Indiana vs. John A. Bristow documents the juried case that adjudged John A. Bristow was "insane and dangerous to community if suffered to remain at large," appointing Larkin Bristow "to take charge of him" (pp. 62-63).
Miller wrote marginal notations about associated fees. Throughout the volume, individuals signed to acknowledge receipt of the "Judgment in full," or loose receipts were pasted or laid in acknowledging payment.
